Trainspotting on the BDR 14 March 2024

 

A Watershed Night on the GSD

 Tonight trains ran, for the first time from Blue Lake all the way to Upper Sturt  meaning all I have to put in now are the Staging Yards for Adelaide and Heywood then I’m finished. ……… the mainline that is. But a seminal moment when my Grandson. Maxi ran 702 from Upper Sturt all the way round, through Bridgewater, Murray Bridge, across the river and flood plain, through Wirrega and into the yard at Blue Lake. After a little tweaking after the first run 905 hauled an Up Blue Lake and 930 took the first Down Blue Lake daily Goods.

930 hauls the Down Goods across the Murray River flood plain

930 passing Bridgewater Station

905 waiting its turn on the GSD with the Up Blue Lake

BDR Operations Report 29 Feb 24

 BDR - Border Downs Railway was alive & well Thursday Feb 29th

Look what was running rampant !! A pity Stu was not present !

it appeared many times during the session but first the crew:-

Geoff the Man ( who took out the Johnny Award for being in "control" at Riverbend and not setting turnouts causing  a major derailment)

Steve BD SM who, as normal in charge of

ably assisted by Ray, Reg, Craig, the scribe & visitor for the 2nd time,  Adam from Junction Models with Tony still on holidays somewhere in the world.....

Outside of the "error" by Geoff, only a couple of false uncouplings so the night relied on the banter to keep things in some form of normality.

As I type this, today marks forty years that Ray his lived here in SA - longer than his previous "life" over the border.  But that doesn't stop the niggles he gets from the BDR SM 

And as normal, I was "instructed" to install bridges over the River Kwai ( but as I was the last driver hiding down near Easton, Ray removed them).
 I also had my once a year job of being the Poison train driver &  fortunately, Border Downs was done in my absence so I didn't have to suck upto the SM !

I didn't hear too many complaints about things on the BDR.

Crew for the next session March 14th are

Train Control Geoff

Border Downs  Steve

Main line : - Ray,  Reg,  Craig , David

and one of you lucky gents will have to do both jobs - insta

lling the bridges & the Report 

56 goods thru Coonara

390 loaded grain heading towards Riverbend

Look,,, hens

A ghost van

According to Geoff - going to the scrappers !!

Extra at Easton


 

at Coonara

Alco power at Coonara

Extra test trip

Visitors to the BDR

VR locos ( for Ray to drool over)

looks nice but doesn't work ( it's a dummy)

doesn't it look the part ?


thanks Adam for bringing the unusual rolling stock not normally seen in BDR land.









Sol

What’s happening on the GSD

 It’s been over a month since I posted an update. Time flies when you are having fun. 

First an update.

The layout progresses with track on the Snuggery Branch now complete through to Millicent Staging. Wirrega is now 90% complete with all sidings in, but I need to add two RH points in the yard to complete it. The mainline between Wirrega and Murray Bridge is in and working, crossing the viaduct and triple bridges across the Murray and flood plan. The bridge and supports still need some detailing but I am very happy the way it’s coming together.

Millicent Staging

 

                                      Wirrega

I have tried different methods of point control in yards, but have settled on the tried and true use of control panels and so have put the yard switches onto new albeit unpainted panels in Blue Lake.

On the 3D printing front I have been drawing up an SAR Insulation Van for some months now and have finally got to the printing stage. After 3 attempts to get a nice model, I think I am pretty close. Everything on the model other than the wheels and couplers I designed and printed. The bogies are resin prints which I hope will be resilient enough to run well. The resin prints shown much more detail than PLA prints, but can be very brittle. If they don’t last I can print some PLA bogies and run with those.

BDR Op Session 1 Feb 24

BDR Op Session 1 Feb24

I was Operator 2 last night, 6 trains with one small shunt in Donald and Border Downs. Sol's Report on the night below.

We met again ;

that is  -  Geoff as the Man in charge; Steve as the next in line as the Mayor of Border Downs with the following "willing" workers - Tony, Reg, Ray, yours truly & a visitor David Orr.

A month ago I had a driver Adam & we performed well, in fact not only on time but had plenty of spare time even with a lot of shunting.
Well, again I had driver, David & we performed as efficiently as a month ago. So perhaps I should get a raise ?

Now back to the real world - fortunately the Johnny Award was not in vogue otherwise it would have been awarded within the first few minutes.... No names. no pack drill!

The helix appeared to have the FU fairies present as a couple of trains decided they didn't want to travel in it & split, derailed and generally caused some slight chaos. The problems must have affected the Company photographer as only 5 photos have been presented to me for inclusion.

As per normal procedure, Tony tried to lighten the mood with a couple of "witty" jokes & assisted by the Mayor of Border Downs with banter of all types.
Reg did say a few times  " fellas, remember to reset turnouts to the mainline" - making sure he doesn't commit the error himself (as if he would ? )

Ray had 6 trains & no shunting !

At times, I think Donald could do with a third loop ( yes I know there are 3 tracks now but one has the goods shed on it so IMHO, there is only 2 loops   )   Coonara has 3 loops  plus the goods shed track .......

The crossing loop / mainline terminology got forgotten once or twice 

86 coil steel train

255 empty grainie

542 passenger passes 214 roadside at Coonara

851 crosses 324 at Coonara                                   

Weathered silos at the Downs  

A good night I believe, was enjoyed by all.

Sol

My Pics from Last night

 

 Border Downs Switcher working hard

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